[Osteitis and reconstruction of shaft defects of long bones]

The results of treatment of 18 patients with post-inflammatory shaft defects of the long bones within the femur, the tibia, and the humerus have been presented. The defect ranged from 2 to 4 cm in most of the cases; it was 8 cm in one case, 10 cm in two cases and over 20 cm in two cases. The treatment method consisted in active, multidirectional surgical procedure overcoming the inflammatory process and changing the "infected" case into a "clean" one making possible to use the generally accepted treatment methods. Healing of grafts and bone union was obtained in all 18 cases, marked restriction of movement in the knee joint was found in 4 patients, and recurrence of the inflammatory process of mild clinical course was found in 4 cases.